I’ll explain this in a minute.

Last week I celebrated Thanksgiving with friends and family in California. At dinner I was introduced to a former public school teacher. He was competent, dedicated and loved children. But he left last year. She had had enough. Years before she had entered the profession because she loved children, and now she was leaving for the same reason.

The quote, “Those who can, do; and those who can’t, teach.” it is attributed to HL Mencken (1880-1956). As cynical as this statement sounds (and professional teachers have raged against it and continue to be offended to this day), there is a truth to be gleaned if we can relax enough to appreciate caustic sarcasm. Mencken’s point may have been that teaching apart from application is almost worthless. It has little relevance to the real world. Just a loudmouth who gets paid to move around a lot.

The teacher I met last week could no longer tolerate the endless tests and measurements; grades on report cards had been replaced by dozens and dozens of “academic results” that she had to assess and document. She could no longer tolerate having her previous professional training and classroom know-how set aside, not to mention common sense honed by her life experience (that’s right, she’s in her 40s) with a rigid lesson plan handed down. from on high that required all teachers at the same grade level to be on the same page of the same book on the same day or certain penalties would apply. Spontaneity and curiosity were practically prohibited. Besides, there was no time, and the teachers would be in trouble if they were caught using an unauthorized book. She knew this was not good for the children, and with a clear conscience she could not continue. She left.

Don’t think that such administrative nonsense is limited to secular education. Years ago I learned of a major Christian institution and textbook publisher that was training new managers in the same assembly-line approach to education. It sounded more like a car factory to me. They also sold textbooks to homeschoolers. You have probably bought and used them. Me too, because they are good books, they just need some modifications. One of my mentors taught me years ago not to be afraid to “fillet the fish.” This is especially true if he uses some secular books at his local school.

All this to say that in order to expand your children’s thinking, to ensure that their education is more than the result of a simple “mouth in motion”, you must ask questions that force them to apply what they are supposedly learning. They may need more than paper and pencil to answer correctly.